Tag: Ken Weingartner

Thirty years ago in 1993, David Miller was the recipient of the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s Rising Star Award. Ten years later in 2003, he received his first Driver of the Year Award after guiding No Pan Intended to the Pacing Triple Crown and Horse of the Year honors. A decade from there in 2013, he was elected to the Harness Racing Hall of Fame. And now in 2023, Miller became the sixth driver in history to reach 14,000 lifetime victories. To celebrate that accomplishment, the 58-year-old Miller recently took the time to look back at those landmark seasons that helped shape his career.

Hall of Fame female trotter CR Kay Suzie, a multiple Dan Patch Award winner including Horse of the Year in 1995, passed away Tuesday morning in Ocala, Fla., owner Rod Allen said today. She was 31.

When Matt Kakaley decided he wanted to pursue a career as a harness racing driver, that was his only focus. The numbers Kakaley has amassed since he won his first race in 2006, though, provide an opportunity for the 35-year-old to reflect on fulfilling his career objective. On Tuesday (May 16), Kakaley recorded his 6,000th victory. Two days earlier, he surpassed $100 million in purses.

When trainer Mitch York bought Annapolis Hanover as a yearling at the 2021 Standardbred Horse Sale, he hoped the pacer would develop into a top horse on the Pennsylvania fair circuit. It didn’t work out that way, but York isn’t about to complain. Annapolis Hanover, purchased for $15,000 and owned by York, has hit the board in all 14 of his lifetime starts, winning nine, and earned $260,183.

Special Way gives Ake Svanstedt a special feeling. A returning Dan Patch Award winner, Special Way needed two starts last year before everything clicked, but once it did, she was unbeatable. She finished her campaign with seven consecutive victories, capped by a Canadian-record 1:52 mile in the Breeders Crown final for 2-year-old female trotters at Woodbine Mohawk Park. For the season, the daughter of Walner-Special Hill earned just shy of $700,000, tops among freshman filly trotters. On Saturday, Special Way will make her seasonal debut in the second of two $30,000 first-round divisions of the New Jersey Sire Stakes for 3-year-old female trotters at The Meadowlands.

Ron Burke likes to win. Whether it is a low-level claiming race or Grand Circuit stakes — or even a steak dinner — the record-setting trainer remains motivated by the thrill of victory. Even after experiencing the feeling nearly 13,700 times in his Hall of Fame career, helping his stable accumulate purse earnings of now more than $300 million, it never gets old.

The rapid growth of the Siegelman Stable brand, headed by Max Siegelman, can be attributed to several factors, ranging from creativity to networking and marketing. First and foremost, though, is strong roots. Siegelman, the son of harness racing trainer Robbie Siegelman, put philanthropy at the heart of his Siegelman Stable luxury sports and streetwear line, which launched in the summer of 2020 and has found numerous fans in the worlds of sports, music, and fashion.